


Clockwork Heart

by Jadenite



Category: Tin Man (2007)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mystery, Quest, pre-slash?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-14 05:35:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15381813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadenite/pseuds/Jadenite
Summary: "Feelings are like Pandora's Box, once you've cracked the lid there ain't no stuffing 'em back in again."~ Wyatt Cain





	Clockwork Heart

The confounded headcase was late,  _ again _ . As a man who was once married Wyatt Cain was well practiced in the art of waiting but the muglug was getting cold and the cider was getting warm so he pulled his food forward and dug in like a Tin Man who'd just come off a hard night shift. Crime rate was dwindling under Queen Lavenders reign but there would always be another Black Hat lurking, thieving, or murdering for a silver sixpence; it was the way of the world.  _ "Every city has it's bad seeds"  _ Cain thought biting into his apple, a vibrant  ripe red, it's juices sweet on his tongue as he savored the tasty treat. Glitch would have been dismayed over his cynicism. But who'd of thought? Between them all it was the man who'd had half his brain ripped out by an evil Witch who insists on seeing the glass half full, considering his  _ head _ was half empty. 

 

Cain leaned back in his chair, booted feet propped up on the adjoining cushion. “Glitch will love these” he said to his audience of a dainty purple tea cup, an empty chair, and the purple kettle to go with the purple tea cup. He carefully saved the second apple knowing Glitch would be along eventually. He was bound to take a few wrong turns, this place was massive. In the meantime he kept his ear out for the door, it squealed like a pig at slaughter when yanked at the best of times, the sound  echoing down the silent, marbled halls like a ghostly shriek. It didn’t both Cain and it kept the staff from rooting through his quarters more than necessary for standard cleaning and dusting so it suited him perfectly if they fancied this section of the palace haunted. Cain awkwardly inspected the purple tea cup pinched between his fingers feeling a touch silly; he worried if he held to tight it would shatter. 

 

It was just shy of midnight now. Any minute Glitch would come skidding through the doorway, all haphazard clothes, fly-away hair, and that beaming smile he'd have just because he  _ remembered _ . It was hard not to get a little caught up in his whirlwind happiness, Glitch was just so damn heart-on-his-tattered-sleeve  _ expressive _ . It seemed like a dangerous way to be, having everything out there in the open,  _ vulnerable _ . But no, Glitch plowed straight in. And contrary to popular opinion Cain was not blind. 

 

No, he’d noticed Glitch gravitated toward him these days. Fact was, he'd be lonely otherwise. Glitch didn't forget him amid the hustle and bustle of palace life and stately dinners, or abandon him for the Apple Orchards and the palaces’  _ Garden of Reflection _ . Maybe that wasn’t being fair to either of them. The kid was making up for fifteen annuals of missed time. A few lessons in the History of the O.Z. and Royal Etiquette was a small price to be reunited with family. He could only imagine what it was like for Raw -- constantly bombarded with other people's feelings. Cain didn’t know how Raw did it. He barely had a handle on his _ own _ feelings never mind strangers. 

 

It could be they were the only two odd ducks out right now; having to relearn what home was and where it was while they were at it. Truth was, unlike the others Glitch quite often came up to his new office with lunch in hand, a smile on his face, perching on his oak-wood desk that creaked and groaned like an old man. 

 

_ "You do realize it's lunch?"  Glitch said absently swinging his legs forward and back, looking absolutely flummoxed that this had somehow escaped Cain's attention. Cain pointed at his papers, gently shoving the other man off three hours worth of gruelling, mind numbing, drudgery.  _

 

_ "That time already?" Cain asked derailing the conversation.  _

 

_ "Good Glenda Cain, and they call me the forgetful one!" Glitch had exclaimed, grinning all the while. _

 

_ "Yeah, well they don't know us, sweetheart. C'mon, we'll get lunch across the street at Pete's Pies & Peaches." _

 

_ "Lead on, Tin Man!" Glitch said latching onto the idea with relish. "Pete's Pies & Peaches, that's a lot of alliteration for one establishment! Ha! Pete's Pies & Peaches, try saying that three times fast."  _

 

_ "It's a regular tongue twister" Cain said, straight faced. Glitch laughed, his eyes glinting mischievously in the noon day sun. _

 

_ They left the office gossiping like school children at recess. _

 

_ "I didn't know the Boss Man knew what a joke was" a junior officer mumbled to the secretary, a harried, bespeckled lad named Tom.  _

 

_ "Me neither. Who was that headcase, anyhow?"  _

 

_ Cain tuned back in to Glitch's spiel on the problematic nature of alliteration and let the rest of the idle office gossip go unheard. _

 

_ "The genre can only house so many Byron Bains, Peter Pipers, and Jane Janet's, before it all becomes less forward thinking and more, 'I can't be bothered to dream up something original!' here's some quirky alliteration...you know?" _

 

_ Cain paused, thinking, shrugged and said, "I'll take your word for it, Glitch." _

 

_ "That, Wyatt, is a terrible idea." Glitch said, but he was smiling contently and all was right in the world.  Though, how he'd made the leap from Pete's Peaches & Pies to the overuse of alliteration for Heroic Figures in literature Cain never quite figured out. That was Glitch in a nutshell.  _

 

_ Later Cain would find the discarded brown bag on his desk had a whole grain bread, turkey, tomato sandwich, and a side of apple. It was exactly what he most often requested from the kitchen staff on the nights he and Glitch dined in his private rooms.  _

 

Cain shook off the memory but was left smiling. He prided himself on being a self-aware man and feelings of his own were creeping up on him winding through his heart like vines, bridging  holes left by Adora and fifteen annuals in a metal contraption. He felt like he was standing at a crossroads of sorts; one foot in the past, the other itching to start out on this new road he'd found stretching out before him. A life that came with a permanent address at the palace, brunches with DG and her mother the Queen of the O.Z., and  _ Glitch _ . Who still hadn’t made an appearance. Cain had a whole lot of feelings building up; more than he could shake a stick at and the lion’s share of them came back to the empty seat across from him. He didn’t know if he was ready but his ol’ ticker hadn’t consulted him on the matter. It just started to thaw, slow and tentative as a bear crawling from its Winter lodgings. The rusted hunk of tin hasn’t asked for his say so in the matter, like the bear it simply  _ was. _

 

_ “That was the problem with feelings,”  _ Cain figured.  _ “They’re a lot like Pandora's Box, once you've gone and cracked it open there’s no stuffing it all back inside.” _

 

Cain signed, all this supposition was giving him a headache. Even if he was ready, who's to say Glitch felt the same? That it could that even work? Cain was rubbing his forehead tiredly when the door to his room swung inward with a rickety shriek. 

 

“Well, look what the cat dragged in” Cain said turning to properly face the door. There was only one problem. That  _ wasn’t _ Glitch wringing his hands uneasily in Cain’s doorway. 

 

“You’re not Glitch,” Cain said, his booted feet landing on the floor with a dull thud as he turned his full attention to the worried Viewer. Raw may not have been the bravest fellow but he’d come a long way since they’d found in the Papay Fields a year ago. Something was gnawing at Raw and when something got its teeth into an empath is could only mean one thing. Trouble. 

 

“I not find Glitch,” Raw said, “I not find him anywhere in palace.” Raw paced, frowning mightily. “Queen concerned, Raw very concerned.” 

 

Cain was already grabbing for his gun belt, hanging on his bedpost, and shrugging into his long tan coat. Raw tossed him his hat and they left. He had a headcase to find.   

 

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Reader, 
> 
> I haven't written fan fiction in years.  
> I can't promise I will finish this.  
> But I can promise I will try.
> 
> ~Jadenite


End file.
